Chapter 1444 - First Battle I Thud! Thud! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 I landed on the ring same platform time as my opponent, who is looking at me with a burning battle spirit. As I looked opponent, I couldn’t help but get surprised as all the photos Ive seen of him did not do him justice. He is not extremely handsome as some men are, but his tall height and aquiline nose made him classically handsome. Seeing his looks, I couldn’t help but sigh in jealousy before throwing those thoughts away. The battle ring I have landed on is bigger than the earlier rings. Though its size could not be compared to the arena, it is still big enough to let King show all their strength without feeling many constraints. "I had never thought my first battle would be against you, Micheal Zaar," Edmond said as he looked at me from up and down, tracking the smallest movement I make like an eagle in the sky. "You seemed to have to research me?" I asked with a smile, "Yes, not anyone could return from the Ghoul Ruin after spending a whole cycle in it," "Professors have advised us to treat you as a ’Monster.’" He said, greatly surprised me. My going and coming out of Ghoul Ruin is public knowledge, and I know many organizations are treating me seriously and warn their members against me, but I had never thought they would treat me as ’Monster’; it is huge. From what I had gathered from my friends, many Supremes and other organizations have considered me a serious threat, but they did not give me the designation of ’Monsters.’ The designation is very important, and barely anyone get in a decade. This decade is very special; seven people have got that designation, according to my knowledge, and all those who got it have been extensively researched to get that designation. My record before me going to ruin is great, but it is far from enough to give me a ’Monster’ designation; the only notable thing I did was surviving the ’I’ Ruin and coming out of it; I did not show real power, even when I sparred. "I am honored to have Silverstone Academy throught of me that high," I said, bowing ever so slightly. "Even if you are a ’Monster’, I will defeat you," He said, and I sensed a very powerful aura coming out of him. I was about to say something when the countdown of battle from 3. "3, 2, 1" The first fight countdown started at the same time, and the audience counted with it. The sound audience is making is defeaning; a normal person has his ears bleeding at such sound within seconds. "FIGHT!" The audience said sound loud as the countdown finished, and at the same time, I saw Edmond coming toward me. He is very fast, so fast that normal Kings could not be able to catch his movements, and as he came at me, the armor of steel and holding an unadorned steel longsword with an extremely sharp blade. He is using a powerful speed method, and the way his armor glowing as he is coming toward me, I could guess he is charging another method, a very powerful one if I were guessed by aura. Seeing him coming at me without holding, a small smile couldn’t help but appear on my face. It is a good thing he is using all his strength; if not, I would have thrown him off the ring without giving him any chance to launch a single attack. I did not; the only thing I did was to call the single diamond red vines, which transformed into delicate Viney repair. He seemed shocked and angry at me making an ability blade, not using my totem artifact, much less the summoning out my Inheritance Armor as his aura boiled again and his speed increased. "Hundred Steely Cuts!" He appeared in front of me and swung his sword while shouting the name of his art. His blade begins to shine and increase in power as it came at me. I did not move my rapier seeing his attack coming toward me; his attack is too slow for me; I will move when his sword is close enough for me. His sword comes closer and closer to me, and I did not move; I let it come closer to me; this seemed to have surprised him quite a lot as I could feel his soul energy covering me, seeing if everything is right with me. I let his sword come close to close to me, and when it was just about half a meter away from me, and my rapier moved. It looked like my rapier is moving slowly; it did not look like a weapon is moving but a wind itself. It is slow and gentle, just like a night wind that one experience while standing on the hill. CLANG! My rapier appeared in front of the blade of Edmond and stopped it effortless. I could feel the shock that runs through the audience and Edmond itself; they had thought me mad, seeing my blade moving so slowly, but my blade was not slow at all; it was fast, very fast; the reason it seemed slow because of its fluid movements. Making movements fluid as this is very hard; one needs experience and practice. The Fluidity of movements is one of the applications of control; as long as one has enough control over the body, soul, and energy, they could see many shocking things. "Second Cut!" CLANG! Edmond recovered very quickly from his shock and launched another attack; it held double the power of the first, but like the first attack, I had easily defended against it. Third Cut CLANG! Forth Cut CLANG! Fifth Cut CLANG!... He launched another attack and then another and then another, each being more powerful than the other. Still, my rapier defended against the attack of his as smoothly as it defended against its first attack.